The Highway's Jammed With Broken Heroes | Zagsblog
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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Friday / March 29.
  • The Highway’s Jammed With Broken Heroes

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    Bruce Springsteen played the first of three shows at Giants Stadium last night and I’m headed out tonight to see Show No. 2. Can’t wait. If anyone wants to chime in with comments on last night’s show, I’d love to hear them.

    Here’s what Backstreets.com had to say, complete with setlist:

    The show opened appropriately with the retelling of the Legend of the E Street Band, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out.” Lots of dedications, including “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart” for “my friend Jane,” and “Growin’ Up” for a ten-year-old sign-holder named Rosie. “This song was written a quarter-century before you were born,” Bruce told Rosie, “It must be good — your daddy was a wink in his mama’s eye!” And after the song, “There you were: a little egg inside a little egg inside a little egg….” “Mary’s Place” was “for my friend Wayne Myers, who has taught me so much about how to get there,” Bruce said, “Thank you, Dr. Wayne!” Complete with knee-slide and an extended preacher rap (including Clarence in Ed McMahon mode, echoing Springsteen’s offered wisdom), “Mary’s Place” stretched out to 14 minutes, and that’s even without band introductions.

    After rejoining the band for the four shows in Spain, Patti Scialfa was with us again tonight, bringing out “Brilliant Disguise” and “Tunnel of Love.” Her husband gave her a quick peck after “Brilliant Disguise,” explaining, “I didn’t want to mess up that makeup.” To open the encore, Bruce decided to send one out to “one special Jersey girl,” which had some eagerly anticipating a certain Tom Waits cover… but just for a sec, before he went into, of course, “Girls in Their Summer Clothes.”

    After “American Land,” and after making like he was done for the night, Bruce came back to the mic and told the crowd, “You ain’t got it.” He continued egging the crowd on — “You ain’t got it. I still got it… you ain’t got it” — before finally finding them up to the challenge: “Oh yeah? Let’s get it on!” No twisting and shouting tonight, that’s been left in Europe for the time being — instead, “Rosalita” came out to jump. “A true fairy tale to open the show,” Bruce declared, “and a true fairy tale to close the show.”

    Setlist:

    Tenth Avenue Freeeze-out
    Radio Nowhere
    Lonesome Day
    No Surrender
    Adam Raised a Cain
    Spirit in the Night
    Summertime Blues
    Brilliant Disguise
    Atlantic City
    Growin’ Up
    Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart
    I’ll Work for Your Love
    Youngstown
    Murder Incorporated
    The Promised Land
    Livin’ in the Future
    Mary’s Place
    Working on the Highway
    Tunnel of Love
    The Rising
    Last to Die
    Long Walk Home
    Badlands
    * * *
    Girls in Their Summer Clothes
    Jungleland
    Born to Run
    Bobby Jean
    Dancing in the Dark
    American Land
    Rosalita

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    Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle. A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.

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